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Objective tool to evaluate one of the fastest growing investment solutions within the U.S. retirement landscape

LOS ANGELES, June 1, 2016 – American Funds, a family of mutual funds from Capital Group, one of the world’s leading investment management firms, announced today that it has launched Target Date ProView℠, a new interactive target date fund evaluation tool that aligns with the Department of Labor’s 2013 guidance for retirement plan fiduciaries. It is available for financial professionals with participating dealers at https://www.americanfunds.com/proview

ProView is designed to help financial intermediaries efficiently compare and contrast different target date funds through unbiased evaluation. It is a quantitative, web-based tool powered by Morningstar® data that focuses on the most widely used factors for consideration, which include glide path, returns, risk, expenses and manager & fund profiles. The interface is mobile-friendly and allows users to easily generate tailored, unbranded reports for client presentations.

ProView is a powerful platform for the objective evaluation of target date funds, which are a fast-growing investment solution within the U.S. retirement landscape:

Investment consultant Casey Quirk & Associates projects that $3.7 trillion in assets will be held in target date funds by the end of 2019i, up from $760 billion in 2015.ii

According to an Employee Benefit Research Institute Brief, 62% of 401(k) participants had target date funds at year-end 2013.iii

Cerulli Associates projects that 88% of new retirement plan contributions will flow into target date funds by the end of 2019.iv

“We strongly believe in the importance of objective target date fund evaluation,” said Bill Anderson, Director of Institutional Retirement Product Management at American Funds. “We built ProView to offer market professionals a powerful and user-friendly way to help satisfy their fiduciary responsibilities, which includes ongoing evaluation and documentation.”

Capital Group recently surveyed retirement plan advisors, plan sponsors and consultants to determine how and with what frequency target date funds are evaluated by those who consider themselves to be fiduciaries. Of the 691 respondents:

Two out of three would recommend or expect to do a complete due diligence evaluation of the target date funds in their retirement plans at least every two years, but a quarter expect the frequency to be every three years or longer.

35% didn’t conduct a full target date fund evaluation or a deep due diligence more frequently because they feel that the process “takes too much time” or “is too complex.”

Among the cohort identified above, 66% indicated that an analytical tool would be useful in helping them conduct evaluations.

In addition to streamlining the evaluation process, ProView differentiates itself in the marketplace by offering a “traditional view” and a “deeper view” into target date fund metrics. The “traditional view” allows users to view and display the metrics most commonly used in the industry, while the “deeper view” allows for more in-depth evaluation of the data.

“We have received enthusiastic feedback from financial intermediaries who have seen ProView,” notes Mr. Anderson. “They specifically like that the tool is easy to use and offers a ‘deeper view’ into target date fund analysis.”

About Capital Group

Since 1931, Capital Group has been singularly focused on delivering superior results for long-term investors using high-conviction portfolios, rigorous research and individual accountability. Today, Capital Group manages more than US $1.39 trillion in long-term equity and fixed-income assets for millions of individual and institutional investors around the world.*

The Capital Group companies manage equity assets through three investment groups. These groups make investment and proxy voting decisions independently. Fixed income investment professionals provide fixed income research and investment management across the Capital organization; however, for securities with equity characteristics, they act solely on behalf of one of the three equity investment groups.

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Investments are not FDIC-insured, nor are they deposits of or guaranteed by a bank or any other entity, so they may lose value.

Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the mutual fund prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained from a financial professional, and should be read carefully before investing. Similar information about collective investment trusts can be obtained from Capital Group or participants’ plan provider or employer.